SUMMARY

The first scene of “The Prince of Egypt” portrays the suffering of the enslaved Hebrews
under Egyptian rule, particularly the infanticide of newborn Hebrew boys ordered by
Pharaoh Seti to suppress the possibility of rebellion. Yocheved, fearing for her own
infant son’s life, places the baby in a basket and lets him drift away on the Nile. He is
eventually found and taken in by the Queen, who names him Moses—the second
prince of Egypt. Moses grows up with all the privileges of an Egyptian prince; life for
him is good until he crosses paths with his biological siblings, Aaron and Miriam, and
discovers his true parentage. The life he’s known till that point crumbles. He grows
increasingly distressed and uncomfortable with the abuse of the Hebrews until he
reaches a breaking point: in an attempt to stop an Egyptian guard from harming an
old man, Moses accidentally causes the guard’s death. He then runs away and finds
himself among the Midianites; it is among them that he settles and eventually builds a
good, peaceful life for himself until the day that God directly speaks to him. Told to
liberate the Hebrews still in Egypt from their suffering, Moses musters the courage to
return. The new pharaoh—his adoptive older brother, Rameses—warmly welcomes
him back but turns cold when Moses pleads for him to free the Hebrews. God thus
begins to inflict the ten plagues upon Egypt, yet Rameses, though aware that
liberating the Hebrews would cause the plagues to cease, steadfastly refuses to do so.
It is only after the tenth plague in which his own son is killed that the grieving
Rameses begrudgingly frees Moses’ people. The Hebrews leave Egypt and celebrate
their freedom on their journey, but this is cut short when they reach the Red Sea and
realize that Pharaoh Rameses has led an army to annihilate them. Moses parts the sea
with the staff that had been blessed by God, leading the Hebrews across as a line of
fire momentarily hinders the Egyptian army from following them. As the last of the
Hebrews get to the other side, the sea falls back on itself, drowning the soldiers in
pursuit and washing Rameses back to the shore on Egypt’s side.
 REFLECTION
There are many parallels that can be drawn between the events in Moses’ story and
what has and continues to happen in real life, and watching this film has only
strengthened my beliefs and resolve to help call for the liberation of those who still
face oppression to this day. A nation that subjects a marginalized group of people to
horrible abuse and oppression for their own interests and gain is obviously and
certainly despicable—there is not a single shadow of a doubt about that, and I can
only hope that the real-world oppressors who continue to shamelessly commit the
unspeakable receive the punishment that befits their crimes. But those who bear
witness to these crimes yet choose to turn a blind eye to it? A quote by Desmond Tutu
said it best: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the
oppressor.” Moses, who grew up an Egyptian, admits it himself in the film that he “did
not see because [he] did not wish to see.” It is so much easier to just go on with our
lives and separate ourselves from the collective pain and suffering experienced by a
minority or marginalized community because we aren’t the ones being abused. We
bear the responsibility of speaking up and lobbying for the freedom of the ones who
don’t have it; being silent, on the contrary, actually tells the rest of the world that we
don’t have an issue with the injustice we are clearly witnessing. But as Moses
eventually recognized himself in the faces of the oppressed Hebrews and fought for
their freedom, I hope more of us as well can truly recognize ourselves in the faces of
the minorities and the marginalized—that they may not look like us or speak our
languages or have our culture, but they are humans just like us, and for that alone,
they deserve to be liberated. From the river to sea, I pray for the oppressed to finally be
free.